The TVAD Research Group, based in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Hertfordshire, researches relationships between text, narrative and image. We publish books, journal articles, host a double-blind peer-reviewed journal, Writing Visual Culture (previously Working Papers on Design) and host events including international conferences.

Monday, 25 March 2013

TVAD Visiting Researcher 2012-13, Associate Professor of Design History in the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas at the University of Oslo, Dr Kjetil Fallan is the author of Design History: Understanding Theory and Method (Berg, 2010), editor of Scandinavian Design: Alternative Histories (Berg, 2012), co-editor (with Grace Lees-Maffei) of Made in Italy: Reassessing a Century of Italian Design (Bloomsbury, 2013), and has articles in journals including the Journal of Design History, Design and Culture, Design Issues, Enterprise and Society and History and Technology. Dr Fallan is an editor of the Journal of Design History. http://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/people/aca/kjetifal/index.html

WEDNESDAY 8TH MAY 2013Icons and Iconicity Workhop (2B05, FMM Building) - Icons concern us all, as practitioners and viewers of contemporary culture. This day invites staff & students to reflect on the ubiquity of icons & iconicity in the world and in our work.10 am to 12.45 pm (2B05) – Grace Lees-Maffei, editor, Iconic Designs: 50 Stories about 50 Things (Bloomsbury, 2014) will introduce staff presentations on icons and iconicity and chair a closing group discussion:

Alison Gazzard on Facebook

Kjetil Fallan on Lego and Rubik’s cube

Ian Willcock on the Graphical User Interface

Grace Lees-Maffei on Philippe Starck’s Juicy Salif lemon squeezer

Kerry Purcell on Helvetica

2 pm to 4 pm (2B05/AA143) Student presentations on the appearance, and/or absence, or icons and iconicity in their practice. (Students, please refer to the presentations help sheet circulated separately.)

THURSDAY 9TH MAY 201310 am to 12 noon - Staff Reading Group – AA143. For research staff and students to get feedback on writing in progress and new work. Please send texts to g.lees-maffei@herts.ac.uk by Friday 3rd May.

12.30 to 6.30 pm - Design History Society Day Seminar ‘It’s Personal: Subjectivity in Design History’ AA191/A161
Convened by Grace Lees-Maffei (University of Hertfordshire) and Kjetil Fallan (University of Oslo) . Attendance is free, but delegates must register in advance by emailing g.lees-maffei@herts.ac.uk

We are trained to put aside subjective responses in our analytical work, and yet personal interests, values and experiences continue to inform the work of design historians, from our choice of subject matter and theoretical frameworks to our methodological approaches and conclusions. Postmodern theory might have finally killed off the utopian ideal of history as an objective science, but it has arguably left a vacuum, with no comprehensive debate on the role of subjectivity and its potential challenges and benefits. Our aim is to contribute an examination of this under-developed topic relevant to the field of design history and beyond.